Portuguese language changes

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Wed Oct 7 15:07:34 UTC 2009


At 10/7/2009 10:25 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:

>I think we've been down this road before, but
>there is evidently a split between those who call
>all  superposed double-dot diacritics "umlauts"
>whatever their function and those who distinguish
>"true" umlauts (for vowel fronting) as in German
>and Turkish from the superposed double-dots in
>many Romance language orthographies (and English,
>e.g. on the second o in coöperation) that
>indicate diaeresis, i.e. individual pronunciation
>of the vowel on which it occurs as in the
>Portuguese case above.

That's all I meant, wondering whether the Novo
Acordo (actually more like a Retrógrado Acordo)
pact would admit into its vocabulary the
German-derived word "umlaut", and what the " was called in Portuguese.

Apparently I'm on the road not taken by David A.
Daniel, and on the other side of the Great
Divide.  Perhaps I've come down Memory Lane, and
am looking forward to either Veronica or Betty.

Joel

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